


"Good bye, Erik": The Death of Charles Xavier

by MoriartyMistress



Category: X-Men, X-Men (Movieverse), X-Men - All Media Types, X-Men: Apocalypse, X-Men: Days of Future Past, X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom, apocalypse - Fandom
Genre: Angst, Cherik - Freeform, M/M, Major character death - Freeform, Sad Ending, Tears
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-17
Updated: 2016-06-17
Packaged: 2018-07-15 14:33:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,874
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7226347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MoriartyMistress/pseuds/MoriartyMistress
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An alternative ending to X-Men: Apocalypse, where Charles Xavier dies after the defeat of En Sabuh Nur, the mutant god.  Last farewells are exchanged between Erik and Charles.</p>
            </blockquote>





	"Good bye, Erik": The Death of Charles Xavier

**Author's Note:**

> Writer Tag: #Invicta  
> Charles Xavier account: @Professor_CX  
> I hope you enjoy this. I put a lot of effort into it. Feedback appreciated.

          “If I do remember correctly, this is not the first time you have held me like this, my dear,” he smiles weakly, ever the charming joker, “But . . . I do believe that it may be the last.”

          The fading telepath looks up at Magneto with those blue eyes of his, the light which used to dance in them fading more and more as he spoke.  He lay once again in his friend’s arms just as he did all those years ago on the beach in Cuba, his students standing back and watching them as their friends also had on the beach.  The only differences in the picture were the uniforms they wore and the absence of the helmet on Erik’s head.

          “Is that your version of a farewell, Charles? After all we have been through together and that is all you can say?”  The metal bender didn’t mean to say what would be his last words to his dear telepath in such a bitter, harsh tone, but he couldn’t help it.  His rage was always his way of concealing the ever festering wound that was his heart, and it roared and consumed his soul and every fiber of his being now more than ever.

          Charles just smiles even brighter in the way only Charles Xavier could and chuckles, a tear rolling down his cheek from the side of his eye.

          There was never a man more passionate than Erik Lehnsherr. Millions of minds and hearts Charles has reached and heard and felt, but none of them matched in passion to his Erik.  It is what the telepath most admired about the mutant man.  Every feeling, every thought that the man had, began at his heart and consumed his mind, took control of his gut, and Charles could feel it all in his own bones as well whenever he was near him.  Maybe that is why the usually calm-natured professor always became so bitterly emotional when his dear friend and secret lover was with him or even merely mentioned.

          Passion was such a funny thing, the telepath found.  One moment it could cause such joy and express such love, but in the next, it had the power to remind everyone of the true definition of sorrow and agony.  Both forms were beautiful in their own way, or perhaps that was just what the professor chose to believe because he was a little bit on the naive, optimistic side.  Or, better yet, maybe he chose to believe in its beauty because Charles was a telepath, gifted and cursed to understand and feel the effects of both sides of passion, and he preferred to focus on how that battle between joy and agony matured such wonderful people rather than destroyed them.

          Erik was the prime example of that.  Though known to the rest of the world as the heartless, infamous Magneto, Charles saw past those cold walls Erik put up to see the broken, fragile creature that dwelled behind, and Charles Xavier was the first person to pull that creature into the light and show him the love that his mother had once given him before she was murdered.  The telepath saw in that brief time, when Erik’s hidden heart was exposed, what true love was and how grand it could be, only to have it be buried again by years of hatred resurfaced.  Still, with that gentle being locked away deep inside an angry monster, Charles couldn’t help falling in love, couldn’t help but see a twisted, poetic beauty to it all with hope to see Erik’s love again, with hope that such anger and pain was not all that was left and that pain would only help somehow to nurture love, like it had for Charles.

          Even now, the rather harsh tone of the passionate man only made the telepath fall more deeply in love with him in the remaining time he had.  Even now, the anger Erik wore on his outside only made the telepath see the man’s love more clearly.  And it tore at his heart to see it.

          The telepath could feel how much pain Erik was feeling in his chest at the sight of Charles like this.  He could see through Erik’s eyes the image of his dying self, tainted by emotion.  Through his eyes, Charles was beautified in his wretched state: the crimson color of the blood on his head causing his paling skin to look subtly white, his lips still red and not as cracked and withered as it must have looked in reality, and his baldness made him look more delicate than fragile and sickly in the ex-horseman’s eyes.

          “I am sorry, my friend,” his voice was getting softer.  It took all he could to utter these few words; his fight against Apocalypse, his mind having been partially connected with the mutant god as he died, sucked the life out of Charles, literally.  He tries another soft smile, “How rude of me to keep things so short . . .”

          “Yes, how rude of you,” the other mutant snaps sharply, “So, stay . . . Please, Charles,” the harsh tone suddenly turns softer, exposing how vulnerable Erik truly felt.  It was too soon that Charles was leaving him.  For a man, who is so powerful, the _great_ Magneto always seemed to be too weak.  Too weak to save the people, who mattered to him most.  His mother.  His father.  His mutant brothers and sisters.  His wife.  His daughter.  And now Charles, the man he loved most of all and the man, who had been the only one out of all the people he had lost to not only make him love him but to make him love himself.

          “I cannot lose you too . . . We have had it too short.”  It was getting rather hard for Erik to speak now too, his voice cracking as tears blinded him.  “You are the one who is supposed to stay,” and once again his voice has the edge of bitterness in it again, elicited by the sudden fear that gripped his chest when Charles’s eyes started to close weakly.  Erik pulls the fragile telepath against his chest roughly as if that would be sufficient enough in keeping hold of the telepath’s life as well, and it works only to make the weary mutant open his sad eyes again.

          “Stay with me, Charles!”  Erik puts a hand softly on his cheek.

          “ _I am here . . . I am with you,_ ” came the telepathic reply as the dying man now could not retain the strength enough to speak.  It is all he could do to keep his eyes open.

          Though the sudden panic died down in his chest, the metal bender kept his possessive grip on his lover.  “So much time wasted, Charles.  I have wasted so much time in opposition to you.  I took you for granted, you, who saw me as someone more than what I am. Oh _God_ , what have I done to you?!”

          “Eri-,” but the telepath is cut short by a weak sigh as if it hurt too much to even utter his lover’s name.   “ _Erik, please.  You cannot blame yourself.  None of this is your fault.  It is the result of an unfortunate chain of events, which neither you, nor I could have possibly stopped.  It is due to your bravery and aid that we may talk this one last time._ ”

          In his silence, a tear rolls down the metal bender’s cheek, the pain in Erik’s eyes evident as well as the swelling anger in his stomach at himself and at the world, and Charles knew that look all too well.

          “ _Erik. Will you promise me something?_ ”

          This makes the mutant man look away in shame as if he already knew what his telepath would say.

          “ _Please do not burden yourself with my death._ ” This makes Erik look up again and into Charles’s eyes, a look of anger, almost disbelief in his eyes.  But the professor continues, “ _Please do not let my death cause such hatred and anger I already see in your eyes . . ._ ”

          “How could I _not_ , Charles?”  Erik answers sharply once more.

          Charles responds quickly, “ _Because it is no one’s fault.  Especially not yours, Erik. Learn to forgive._ ”  He sighs slowly, trying to regain focus before continuing in a much slower pace, “ _It is easy to forget in the midst of this chaos that you are not the only one to know suffering and loss.  In the haze of grief and pain, you see nothing but the tears in your eyes, hear nothing but your own voice screaming in agony.  How could you not feel so alone?  And, feeling so alone, how could you not see the world as your enemy?  But they are not.  You are not alone, Erik.  Even after I am gone.  Remember that.  Let that heal you._ ”

          “Charles, please stop talking like that . . .  Maybe if you stay, I won’t have to remember.  Stay and remind me,” the tears in Erik’s eyes were now running down his cheeks as he held his lover closer.

          The telepath smiles lightly at that, closing his eyes for a second before looking up at the metal bender again, “ _If I do, my old friend, you would only get tired of my nagging_.”  He tried to joke, end things in a good note, but it, of course, brought no cheer to Erik’s heavy heart.

          “I promise you, I will not.  After all, no one does it better than you,” the metal bender returns the playful tease, though it didn’t seem so playful with his sorrowful gaze.

          All the same, Charles smiles and lets out one last chuckle, speaking his last, “Good bye, Erik. In another life…”

          In a panic, Erik again grips his telepath tighter and cries out, his voice strangled, “No! Charles! Stay with me . . .”

          Some of the students start to walk closer to their dear professor, but Raven holds them back, knowing Erik wouldn’t allow anyone near his dead lover.  They hold back their cries though they could not silence their weeping at their loss.

          However, Erik noticed none of this. His gaze and focus were entirely on Charles, his heart shattering as the telepath’s kind smile relaxed and his beautiful, blue eyes looked somewhere beyond Erik before slowly turning dull.

          Magneto stares in horror and disbelief at his Charles Xavier, now dead with those eyes he had so adored looking blankly at nothing.  He closes his eyes, squeezes them shut, which makes a stream of tears fall down his cheeks, as he pulls the corpse in his arms against him.  He cradles Charles’s head against his chest, much like he had for his late wife and child.  Memories start to flash through his head: first, he sees his mother collapsing dead from a gunshot he couldn’t stop; then, he sees his mutant friends of his brotherhood, one by one falling to their demise under his leadership; and then, he hears the blood curdling crunch of the arrow shooting through Nina and his wife.

          He whispers, his lips against Charles’s bald head, “No, no,” his voice is strangled with tears, “Not my baby . . .  Not my love. Charles.  Not my Charles.”  Erik felt as if a hand were ripping his heart out of his throat.  He couldn’t think, nor could he act out in rage.  All the mutant could do was scream in agony and pound at Charles’s chest as if that could make his heart start beating again, “Wake up, Charles! Wake up! Come back to me . . .  I need you, you _fucking_ fool.”

          Raven comes to his side in an attempt to comfort him and stop him from beating Charles’s corpse, but Erik refused to be stopped, and he just shoves her away.

          He pulls Charles closer and presses his lips against his forehead, sobbing shamelessly.  “What have I done to you, Charles? What have I done! Is this what I get for neglecting you all these years?!” He hisses.  “ _I love you, Charles.  Wake up, so I can tell you.  Tell me you can hear me still . . ._ ”

          But of course there was no reply, and Erik swallows back the curses and the anger.  He just rocks back and forth, holding Charles’s body in his arms.  

 

*     *     *

 

            It had been a month since Charles Xavier had passed in their battle and victory against En Sabuh Nur, the mutant god, and not a single day had passed when Erik did not visit the telepath’s grave. 

            It was yet another beautiful and bright day at the Institute as if the world did not receive the memo that this certain school for mutants was currently mourning the loss of their friend and professor.  Erik did not even have the motivation enough to be bitter at the beauty of the days that so clashed with the gloom he carried on his shoulders.  All he seemed to do now was keep his composure enough not to be kicked out of the school, sit lifelessly at Charles’s grave, and drink in the solitude of his room.

            This day, the month anniversary of his lover’s death, was no different.  As soon as the sun was in the sky and the birds started to sing, Erik was out in front of the deceased telepath’s grave.  He stared at the headstone, which had Charles’s full name and lifespan carved into it along with a note that read: “PROFESSOR AND FRIEND.”  As if that could capture all that was Charles Francis Xavier.

            Erik was done crying.  He had done that for days after the burial, so much so that he had become extremely ill for a couple of days after.  Now, he was dried out and too dead inside to do anything but breathe and drink.

            After Erik had been staring at the headstone for about half an hour, Jean Grey dares to walk up quietly behind him to join him, a bundle of flowers in hand.  She places the bundle on the grave quietly and stands without a word next to Erik, who did not move nor acknowledge her presence.  

            The young telepath allows the silence to go on for a few minutes before speaking softly, “He loved you, Erik.”  It had sounded less cliché in her head, but there was no other way to start off what she had to say to him.  “And Charles . . .,” Jean ignores the flinch Erik gives at the mention of his name, “wouldn’t have wanted you to spend the rest of your days like this.  He told you that before—”

            “Don’t,” Erik practically growls, glaring at her, “I don’t know why you think you have the right to say this to me.”  That was the most he had spoken in a month, and his hoarse voice made that much clear.  He holds back the choking sob that was climbing up his throat as he looks away again.

            Jean keeps her piercing gaze on Erik.  Her gaze was so much like her mentor’s, both of them being the empathetic telepaths they were.  “I’m sorry . . . But Ch- the professor . . . asked me to give you that message if anything were to happen to him.”

            The broken, retired, mutant activist looks over at the student with teary eyes, scowling, “What do you mean?”

            She lifts her hands, edging closer, “I can show you better than tell you . . . May I?”

            This was all too familiar, and it was shattering Erik’s heart all over again.  He just nods weakly, and Jean walks up to him and places her fingers on either side of Erik’s head before closing her eyes.  She concentrates and shows Erik what she was asked to show him by a late Charles Xavier.  The younger telepath had hoped it would not have to come to this, but she was glad, under the circumstances, that she could do it for her teacher and her friend, who had helped her through so much.

            Erik too closes his eyes as a series of memories start to play through his head, memories of their time together from the very beginning through Charles’s eyes.  He felt the amazement that the telepath felt the first time he had spotted Erik in the water just as he felt the compassion that led the mad man to jump into the water to save him.  A tear again rolls down his cheek as the story continues, and he could feel the love slowly growing in Charles’s heart.  Through the telepath’s eyes, Erik was beautiful, so beautiful, and it makes the abandoned lover sob all over again.

            Finally, once the message was over, the pair opened their eyes, both of them wiping away tears from their eyes.

            Erik swallows thickly and nods at the young student, “Thank you.  I needed that.”

            Jean nods and gives a soft smile, “I know.  And I hope that helped.  Good day, sir.”  And with that, she walks back into the school to leave Erik at Charles’s grave still.

            “Even from beyond the grave, Charles.  You still seem to have a way of nagging me.”  He smiles softly.  “Thank you, my old friend.  I love you too.”  He bends over and presses a soft kiss on the headstone before turning back with new motivation to go into the school, which he now looked after for Charles’s sake.  


End file.
